American Robin Migration Update: March 14, 2006 Today's Report Includes: Latest Migration Maps, Data and News Flight By Night on the Vernal Equinox: Challenge Question #3 Introducing the 2006 Northern Observation Posts (NOPs) Announcing the 2006 Early Bird Contest! Challenge Question #4 Link to Lesson: Making Predictions for the NOPs You're the Scientist: What's Your Reply? Discussion of Challenge Question #2: Name That Tune Other Robins, Other Places Ask the Robin Expert: Now Open! Robins and the Weather American Robin Migration Maps and Data   First Robins Seen Waves of Robins First Robins Heard Singing* (map) (map) (map) (data) *Recommended for mapping Look at all the new sightings ( pink circles) on the map! What do you notice? Can you see a clear pattern on the map? How did the “pace” of spring change from last time? What factors might have influenced this? Photo Gerry Pieper The happy comments from Lisa in Reston, VA, summed up her news: “I could hear robins singing and calling from virtually every direction...it was most sweet! Welcome, Spring!” In another Virginia report, robins were coming in waves: “I have never seen so many robins in one place; literally hundreds descended into my neighbor's and my backyard.” Up in Michigan, an observer who heard lots of scolding but no real songs, said, “I suppose they are tired from traveling like any new tourist!” Indeed, like any new tourist, you reported that the new arrivals also seem thirsty, hungry, and busy: “It's a gray day with both snow and rain in the forecast, but the day was made brighter with our first Robin sighting. The Robin was outside our classroom window taking long drinks from a puddle.” (Gr. 2, Moharimet Elementary, Durham, NH) “At about noon today my kids and I observed a wave of robins in our yard and our neighbor’s. They were hopping around on the snow, sitting in trees and looking for worms or something to eat. They seemed to like the areas where all the snow has melted away to expose grass or leaves on the ground. They would toss up the leaves that covered the soil in my raised flower bed and were evidently searching for something to eat.” (MN, March 11) “As the gray light of dawn crept in the windows, the loud scolding voices of robins followed it! The robins were busy setting up their boundaries all day.” (MI, Mar. 9) Flight By Night on the Vernal Equinox: Challenge Question #3 Last time we said that many scientists believe robins fly approximately 30 mph (48-50 kilometers per hour) when they migrate. Next time the calendar will have passed from winter to spring. Our next Challenge Question honors migrating robins and the vernal equinox, coming March 20. Send us your answers! Challenge Question #3: “Robins migrate at a speed of about 50 kilometers per hour. On the first day of spring, when night is exactly as long as day everywhere on the planet, how far might a robin go on its night flight? Look on a map and see if you can guess what town or city or your first robin of spring might have departed from the night before.” To respond to this question, please follow these instructions. Introducing the 2006 Northern Observation Posts (NOPs) People living at the yellow stars on this map (see Web report) are eager to share their first robin news with you, but for most of them it’s going to be a longer wait. But the fun starts as soon as you read the fascinating clues and facts sent by some of our NOPs. What do students in Shageluk, Alaska, consider as their FIRST sign of spring? How does Anchorage teacher Mike Sterling say spring is different for people who live in the high latitudes? Which NOP hasn’t had any snow-days but they did have an "ash” day when a nearby volcano erupted? What was the only NOP to see robins? In which NOP would YOU like to live? Read this week’s news from the end of the robin migration trail: Latest News from the NOPs Hello, students at Innoko River School! Announcing the Early Bird Contest 2006: Challenge Question #4 Calling all entries! After several years of being headquartered in Anchorage, our contest has moved to the village of Shageluk for the 2006 Early Bird Contest. Meet your official hosts, the students from Innoko River School in Shageluk, Alaska, who will report when the first robin arrives in their village: Meet Students from Innoko River School! These students (or their teacher, Joy Hamilton) will send their news in our next reports. Starting today (see “News From the NOPs”), their news and clues will help you make your predictions about the early bird’s arrival date. To enter the contest, simply send us your answer to Challenge Question #3. Best of luck to all! Challenge Question #4: “ When will the first robin of spring 2006 arrive in Shageluk, Alaska?” To respond to this question, please follow these instructions. Link to Lesson: Making Predictions for the NOPs Robins make their way to the far north to lay eggs and raise the next generation. When will robins reach the northern limits of their migration trail? We’ll have to wait and see, but this lesson leads you on a tour of some exiting maps to help you predict. You’ll also find your personal 2006 Prediction Log for the NOPS. The suspense begins now, but the average temperature maps and clues sent by our NOPs in the coming weeks will help you make or revise your predictions. We challenge you to be an average temperature expert and see how close your predictions come! Lesson: When Will Robins Reach the End of the Trail? Making Predictions See how this map can help you predict when robins might reach your home townand the Northern Observation Posts! Photo Will Lowry of Burlington, VT Map NOAA Climate Prediction Center. (No map available of entire continent.) You're the Expert: What’s Your Reply? We get many questions from our readers. We think YOU might have answers to some of them. Here’s an example. How would you explain what these students are wondering about? “Our music teacher saw 20 birds outside her house on Wednesday. She was surprised by their behavior as they flew down from the trees and seemed to be rubbing their bellies on the snow." (Ross in Ferrisburgh, VT, Mar. 8, 2006) After you discuss your ideas or write them in your robin journals, see what our expert thinks: You’re the Expert Discussion of Challenge Question #2: Name That Tune Challenge Question #2 asked you to listen and identify: "Which of these numbered vocalizations will you hear when your robins are back on their breeding territory?" Congratulations to the tuned up robin song experts at Ferrisburgh Central School in Ferrisburgh, VT! They named the right tune, saying: “Number #4 was the sound you would hear when the robins come back to their breeding territory.” Tyrell, Josh, Emily, Brynn (Grade 2) Now: You know WHAT the robins sing. Do you know WHY they sing? (HINT: In the answer above, the word “territory” is a big clue.) Other Robins, Other Places Students in The American Robin Group at Ardaghy National School (ages 9-12) have joined Journey North. In their answer to CQ #1, which arrived after the last report had already been posted on the Web, we were curious and delighted when they included this: “We have robins in Ireland and they stay all year as our weather is never too cold, although we get some snow. Our robin is smaller than yours and the colour is different.” Journaling Question: “What can you find out about the robins seen by Journey North students in Ireland?” Ask the Robin Expert: Now Open! Questions are now being accepted by American Robin expert, Laura Erickson. (Look for Laura's new book, "101 Ways to Help Birds," coming to in bookstores in April!) This is your chance to ask Laura about your backyard robins. Ask the Robin Expert: Now Open! Robins and the Weather What clues about robin behavior can you find in the comments of Laura Erickson as she tells about her first singing robin of spring 2006? “Even before I saw my first robin this year, I heard one singing in my backyard this Saturday (March 11); as its song drifted through my still-closed windows, I looked out to a whole flock eating the last mountain ash berries, flying about and perching in the bare branches of our elm and maples, the first stirrings of territoriality prompting occasional squabbles.” The very next day, several inches of snow fell. It looked and felt like winter in the northland! Laura said, “Robins, with no thermostats or hot cocoa or electric blankets or indoor lighting, deal with the immediacy of weather every moment of their lives. . . So my first robins weren’t surprised and disappointed by yesterday’s snow storm. . . Unlike us, robins come equipped with dense down underwear and a more Zen-like attitude, satisfactorily equipped to deal with weather of all sorts. They may quiet down for a day or two, or even a week or more, until the snow melts once again. But they’re here to stay, and they won’t be spending the next few weeks desperately searching for signs of spring." The Next Robin Migration Update Will Be Posted oN March *21 (*Migration Maps and Data Only). Copyright 1997- 2006 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form.